A purely mechanically operable container control valve is discussed in German patent document DE 26 23 235.
On the basis of this related art, a control valve was provided in DE 41 20 824 C1, which is operable pneumatically and/or mechanically, compressed air being applied to a control piston in order to achieve the drive position, which control piston brings a switching element into the drive position.
By contrast, DE 33 44 022 provided for the use of solenoid valves designed to shift a slider of a control valve pneumatically between different positions. To be sure, a manual lever may be used to select between the different switching positions for controlling the air suspension system. The solenoid valves, however, are controlled purely electrically, while the actual control and movement of the slider occurs pneumatically.
German patent document DE 199 13 380 C1 of the species discusses a device for the controlled operation of a switching element of a valve, which has a spring sliding the switching automatically from a first functional position into a safety position, which on one end of the switching element acts against the locking force of a lock having a locking ball, whose locking force is variable by controlling a solenoid valve, the solenoid valve being used to apply compressed air to a control piston of the lock.
This device has proven itself, to be sure, but it has the disadvantage that a pneumatic control of the control piston of the control valve is still indispensible.